Editor Dad: The moon is made of cotton candy

Saturday

The more I tell her stories, the more I notice her imagination working. I used to tell her the moon is made of cheese, obviously. Now, I let her fill in the blanks.

“I have a great story to tell you!” My daughter says.

“Oh, yeah?” I reply. “What is it?”

“It’s the same one you just told me,” she grins.

She then attempts to spin a yarn I just finished spinning.

Most nights when the lights are turned out and she is snug under the covers, I tell her a story.

“Tell me a scary one!” she always says.

Usually, these are stories about two brave explorers who happen to share my daughters’ names venturing into unknown, dark worlds. Their fearless cat, Ollie, is usually right by their side.

“Ollie’s my cat!” she says.

The cat curls up at the end of the bed.

The thing I’ve learned is that I can tell her any story and, with the right inflection, it’s usually successful.

In a recent story, our fearless explorers wandered into an old, abandoned mansion and confronted a lonely ghost. In the end, the ghost just needed a friend before transforming the gloom of the mansion to beauty and flowers ... and naming our fearless explorers princesses.

In her version of the story, a fearless explorer by the name of “Daddy” confronted a scary ghost and won it over by offering a choice of muffins or cookies.

“But not both, because then he would get a tummy ache,” she said.

“And he chose cookies. And daddy ate the muffins. The end.”

This is dangerous territory with a little one. While I’d hoped story time would usher her into a deep sleep, it has the opposite effect. She gets very excited and wants another story.

“Well, ask mom,” I say like any good father, wiping my hands clean of the transaction and kissing her goodnight.

The more I tell her stories, the more I notice her imagination working. I used to tell her the moon is made of cheese, obviously. Now, I let her fill in the blanks.

When our fearless explorers took a cardboard space ship from the backyard to the moon, they discovered something incredible.

“The moon was soft and bouncy,” I said. “Our fearless explorers discovered it was made of ...”

“Cotton candy,” she answered with a firm nod. “And we ate it.”

When in doubt, play the sugar card.

Lately, I’ve noticed that our bedtime routine is running a bit long. Maybe this is her charming me into spending my night telling her stories. It may also be my own ego telling me that I can top last night’s adventure.

By the end of the night, she is the one telling the bedtime story, and I am the one hiding my face under the covers.

It’s difficult to say no, because there is something special about our quiet time. I get to listen to her wonder about the world.

She keeps a foot in the real world and one in the fantastical. And sometimes the world — my world — could use a view like that.

Especially when there is something good to eat.

Editor Dad is a weekly humor column about life. Dave Manley is a husband and father of two. He is also the News and Content Manager of The Repository. Share your stories with him at david.manley@cantonrep.com.

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